Sandro Del Rosario's "Sguardo"

Lo sguardo italiano (The Italian Gaze, 2016) is the title of a short film by Sandro Del Rosario. The word “gaze” is very pertinent to his style: Del Rosario’s animated films thrive on the theme of gaze to evoke emotional explorations of places. Photography is at the core of Del Rosario’s animation style: pictures of landscapes are manipulated with traditional artistic techniques. Superimposed layers of color, paper cut-outs, and written words enhance the physical nature of printed photographs, to reveal them as objects that store traces of past moments. Their lyrical potential is brought forth also by the use of a composite soundtrack: words, effects, and music have equal importance and crossfade one into another, as in an inner recollection of distant memories. This chapter will analyze Del Rosario’s production, encompassing three short films and several installations, in light of his biography and career.